Summar vacation 2009 part 5; the grateful dead ed.

Ro (Rö) church, the oldest parts are from the 13th century, within the church are murals on the walls and on the roof from the 15th century, the latest addition the church is the choir, added in 1747. The church was restored in 1950-51.

Notice the large buttresses, built during the 16th or 17th century due to a fire, on both the north and south walls of the church.

Roof and wall murals

This one caught my eye it is an interesting mural with an unusual motive called the grateful dead. The mural a church with a high ring wall, outside of the wall are five knights and within the wall is one knight surrounded by the dead armed with farm tools. According to the medieval ledged the pious knight stops at the grave yard to pray for the dead every time he stops at one, when he gets in trouble the dead comes to his aid, in this case against the five persecuting knights. The motive can also be found in Yttergran and Roslagsbro churches. So now I know where to go on my excursion north of Stockholm.

Wood sculptures

Christ from 15th century and the cross ca 1950.

St Maria, 13th century, placed on the the left side of the cross in the choir.

St Erik, 15th century, right side of the cross in the choir

The funt, ca 13th century

This is the third church within a rather small area with an odd bell tower, built 1806-1807, at Skedrid church it’s integrated to the gate building.

Btw. still haven’t finished the Stockholm part of the vacation so there’s still a lot of pictures from Ostergotland, Smaland and Vastergotland to publish.

Welcome

Hello and welcome to Testimony of the spade.

My name is Magnus Reuterdahl and I am a Swedish archaeologist and osteologist. Most posts are connected to my work or my interests in general; Scandinavian archaeology, osteology, cultural heritage, literature and so forth.

On the blog Aqua Vitae (in Swedish) and Testimony of a wine (in English) junkie I blog on wine.